Profile

Habilitações:

MSc in Molecular Genetics

Current Research & Key Publications

Current Work:

Optimization of Pseudomonas sp. M1 as a biocatalyst of myrcene and related plant-derived volatiles using Synthetic Biology: in collaboration with Prof. Víctor de Lorenzo (CNB-CSIC, Madrid) and funded by FCT. The research envisages the exploitation of the enzymatic repertoire of the soil isolate Pseudomonas sp. M1, focused on the ability to metabolize myrcene, a component of essential oils from a variety of plants that is widely used in industrial applications. Importantly, M1 strain is the only well described bacterium able to use myrcene as sole C-source, holding, therefore, great potential as a source of novel biomolecules (as a result of biotransformation by myrcene-specialized machinery) with enhanced biotechnologically-relevant properties. The project aims ultimately the establishment of Pseudomonas sp. M1 strain as a biological chassis for the design of M1 cell-factories à la carte for specialized biotransformation of plant-derived volatiles, by using a systems biology approach to generate the necessary knowledge to design a suitable Synthetic Biology strategy aiming to reduce non-essential genomic burden and optimize M1 as biocatalyst.

Research Projects

PSEUDOCAT: Optimization of Pseudomonas sp.M1 as a biocatalyst of myrcene and related plant-derived volatiles using Synthetic Biology (SFRH/BD/76894/2011)

Collaboration with other projects:

CETSENTI (RECI/AAG-GLO/0470/2012) - Cetaceans as marine ecosystem health sentinels: from July 2013 up to now.

Immunomics-Bcc (PTDC/BBB-BIO/1958/2012) - Exploitation of immunogenic proteins of the Burkholderia cepacia complex to design new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies: from April 2013 up to now.

Concluded Projects:

Projects:

BIOMYR (PTDC/EBB-BIO/104980/2008) - Towards the metabolic engineering of beta-myrcene pathway of Pseudomonas sp. M1: functional genomics and structural biochemistry approaches: from July 2010 to January 2012

MSc in Molecular Genetics from September 2009 to September 2011:Thesis entitled “Tailored strategies exploring genomic data from different Pseudomonas isolates”. Whole-genome sequencing by NGS technologies and functional genomics approaches were used to characterize the genomic catalogue of several Pseudomonas spp.: clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from Hospital de Braga regarding the relationship between genomic plasticity and pathophysiology, and Pseudomonas sp. M1 regarding its potential as source of fine-chemicals and novel enzymes for biotechnological applications. Performed at CBMA, Department of Bioloby of University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, under the supervision of Prof. Pedro Santos